COVID Bullet Points

·  CDC recommends everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19. 

·  Vaccination helps protect you even if you’ve already had COVID-19.

·  Currently, CDC is recommending that moderately to severely immunocompromised people receive an additional dose of the vaccine.

·  Importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on people who already experience disadvantage by virtue of their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic conditions. Research shows that racial and ethnic minorities, in addition to having less access to health care, are more likely to be infected and have poor outcomes after infection with COVID-19, such as being four to five times more likely to be hospitalized.

·  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in September that the Pfizer vaccine’s protection against hospitalization waned significantly after four months.

Pennsylvania

·  From Jan. 1 to Oct. 4, the state reported just 9% of COVID-19 infections were breakthrough cases, and just 7% of those hospitalized had been vaccinated.

·  Overall, fully vaccinated people are still less likely to get sick with the virus, and less likely to be hospitalized. 

·  Of the almost 6.3 million people fully vaccinated in Pennsylvania, just 3,247, about .05%, were hospitalized for COVID-19.

·  In Philadelphia, where 65% of residents age 12 and older are fully vaccinated, about a quarter of people hospitalized were vaccinated, according to September data.

·  The Pennsylvania data show new cases continue to occur primarily in unvaccinated people.

·  Out of the state’s 135,098 positive cases over the past month, almost 100,000 were among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people.

·  About 58% of the state is fully vaccinated, and almost 64% have received at least one dose. Dr. Johnson noted children ages 5 to 11 were expected to soon be eligible to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

The CDC reported people 65 and older are particularly susceptible to waning immunity. The agency authorized boosters for vulnerable people and people in some high-risk professions.